The UK beer, hospitality and events industries are incredibly vulnerable from the threat of COVID-19. But facing the gauntlet of this pandemic, how has Old Street Brewery responded?

After a quiet week with uncertainty and an increasing spread of COVID-19 we waited for an update on the hospitality industry, as we saw events and festivals decrease as the week went on. 20th March at 4:59pm we are having an Infinite Bliss in the brewery, whilst waiting for the PM’s announcement to determine if we open our doors to the public that night. And there it was, all venues to cease trading as soon as possible leaving 100,000’s of employees without work and forcing some businesses to shut their doors. The PM reconstructed The Avengers End Game with a Thanos click to the beer, hospitality and events industries. As we sat around all the big questions started to be asked: How long can we sustain our business with shut doors? Can we still consume this delicious golden nectar of the Gods? Who took our toilet paper? Where’s Adam? What can our punters, staff, beer brethren and business owners do to help the industry to survive? The standard important business sustainability questions.

Clearly, no one knows where any of this is heading, but we knew that we had to remain flexible and rapidly move to develop solutions to getting our beer to market. After some executive meetings over the foosball table our head brewer Adam, co-founder Andreas and our media guru Ben hatched a plan. With less customers in the taproom we noticed that we had a lot more room for activities. How do we get our beer into people’s hands, mouths and livers? In response to Covid-19 pandemic, Old Street Brewery has refined its service for to-go only and delivery, as of March 23rd, effectively and instantly eliminating majority of its taproom business. With options remaining accessible for patrons, Old Street encourages local customers to consider the new take away and delivery service through the taproom, in an effort to deplete kegs and share new brews. Within days the taproom had hit full Bee Gee’s as it came alive with its online service. This is a new process for the business, but an inevitable one as in spite of COVID-19 this was the next step to Old Street Brewery’s business plan for 2020. We have been met with overwhelming support from not only our local East London community, but across the UK and internationally with customer inquiries of beer and merchandise. Even with Flash Josh Gordans hasty canning abilities, last week alone we sold out of beer nearly every day whilst meeting online, take away and delivery service demands.

In the weeks and months to come what to expect from Old Street Brewery?

– More fresh beer and new brews.

– More creativity across all aspects of our business.

– More innovative ways of engaging our support base.

Across the industry we are seeing countless creative flares, which is sparking more motivation for our team at OSB. Kayli our atlas will guide you on the path of the bear and moose through our website in the weeks and months to come, so please keep your eyes peeled. There will be frequent blogs on new beers, brewery updates, ideas and thoughts of the brewer. We have a wonderful community here in East London, we encourage you to buy local and support small businesses where you can. Currently it’s business as usual at Old Street Brewery and we will continue to brew delicious fresh beer for you all. In the meantime, please keep leaving comments and tagging us in your photos to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook accounts.